Insomnia---A Standalone True Blood Story
by angie9281
Summary: Trying to get some needed rest, Eric is instead made to suffer nightmares and relive a tweaked version of his past by a unknown force, the results could lead to very real and deadly results.


**Chapter 1**

"You look…horrible. Something I never once imagined was possible." Pam said as she emerged from her coffin in the basement of the bar. Tara was at her side of course and Willa brought up the rear. He sat in his throne, looking tired, the bleeds having plagued him for the past five days. "You've not fed at all either, have you? Not that you really need terribly much at your age, but still-"

"I'm fine!" Eric snapped angrily, kicking a table over as he walked down from the dais and stalked past his family. "I don't need anything."

"Except for a good nap. You've been cranky the past week and I don't think the guys you literally threw out through the fence the other night appreciated your attitude."

"You healed them and glamoured them, did you not?" retorted Eric as he stopped at the door leading into his office. Slamming it shut, he hoped to find some respite. Pam looked at the other two women.

"I'm worried as you are Pam." Willa said. "I know I have not known him as long as you have but-"

"He's a moody, love struck vampire with a sleep disorder." Tara replied, rolling her eyes. "Maybe he needs Dr. Phil."

Pam was not amused but was too concerned to come back with a fiery retort. "You two stay out here, I will tend to him. And should you be foolish enough to try to join us, I think you will, to quote Anchorman, immediately regret that decision." she opened the door to the office as the other two obeyed, remaining in their posts.

Pam found him on the floor, writing in pain and clutching his head. What had befallen him, she didn't know but she knew it certainly was not good, nor normal. She was helpless as she tried to bring him out of it but it was as if she was not there.

He was back in his Viking days, battling his enemies, killing anyone he could, with every slice of his sword another life was taken and he savored the victories as they came. Then there he was, on the pyre, about to meet his end. He saw flames beginning to rise up around him the smoke beginning to swirl upwards and around him . The smell was both invigorating yet signaled destruction as well. He smelled his flesh beginning to be burned and then he was looking into the calm and curious face of the one who would come to change his life forever.

"I already went through this. what's happening?" Eric whispered as he looked up at Godric, who was not looking at him with the warmth that he had before. This time was different.

"You're not suffered enough for your sins. Your best memories will become your worst nightmares until you are broken." Godric replied in a cold voice and he began to drain the Viking, not as he had done before but with a callousness and viciousness that was cruel. Something that Godric had not been in centuries, having regained his humanity.

"Wake. Up." Pam threw hot water on him, desperate for him to emerge from whatever troubled state he was in. he had stopped thrashing on the floor but had become almost catatonic, his eyes filled with panic and fear. "It's me."

He blinked a few times before he seemed to regain full control over himself again. "I don't know what is happening, Pam. I don't. but I suspect some dark influence is at work. Through a memory, it taunted me. Someone wants to break me. I need you to find someone who can help me. Before its too late."

"Come on. They are dreams. Dreams don't hurt people or kill them. Or vampires. Unless…..no, I don't want to think about that shit again."

He looked at her with impatience. "What?" he snapped.

"Witches again, maybe. The only beings I know of that could put someone as strong as you down on the floor. From dreams, nightmares, for god's sake! But what witch is out there that could possibly want to harm you? We stopped Marnie and the coven and you even tore the heart out of her most loyal supporter."

He couldn't help but smile at that memory. It had been satisfying, there was no doubt about that. But he wanted this to stop. "I wonder of it is possible that Sookie could be of use. She seems to have gained more control over her powers as of late."

Pam rolled her eyes. "Do you try to look for any little excuse to drag her into things? I may have warmed up to her a little more after all she's done for us. But-"

"Enough." he was right in her face with lightning quick speed, in no mood to be questioned. "Do you want to call her here or do you want me to call her-" he stopped as a glazed look came over him again as he clutched his head and fell to the floor. Panicked, Pam wasted no time in doing what was suggested, desperate for anything that may help stop whatever had befallen her maker. Released from him or not, she was never going to be any less loyal to him.

**Chapter 2**

The walls of the bar had vanished from his vision as he was brought further ahead in time. He was in Dallas and by what he was seeing, it was about the time that he was enlisting Sookie's help in looking for Godric. But as he stood in the middle of the church, there was not a single person around, not a noise or anything that would signify there was anyone other than himself anywhere around. "Great." he muttered as he walked slowly around the church, seeing the pyre that he himself had been put on, chained by silver. The chains were still very much there, draping downward towards the floor. "Godric?" he said with a frown as the chains came to life, grabbing at them and pulling him right into place on the raised platform. He saw his maker standing overhead on the upper level, much like when he had come to stop the vampires from attacking the humans in reality. But his maker seemed unconcerned for his well being and seemed to almost relish the predicament. As his wrists and ankles burnt and sent wisps of smoke upwards, he pleaded for his friend to aid him. "They want me dead….what is this about?"

Godric flew downward until he was at the side of his progeny. "You have not suffered nearly enough in life and it is in these visions that you will lose everything. Your sanity. You will be broken and made to exist in a state far worse than even the true death." he looked upwards as the roof of the church vanished, revealing a bright blue sky, the sun burning Godric to nothingness first, Eric forced to relive the demise of one of the few people in his long life he had ever truly loves. And then he too burned, smoke billowing around him, unable to see himself being destroyed.

"Wake up. Please." a voice sounding very far away spoke to him, pleading. He saw the church and smoke vanish, swearing he could actually smell the smoke emitting from him. And then he jumped in alarm as he saw her eyes looking into his. "Shhhh, it's me." Sookie was wearing her pajamas and her hair was undone. Clearly Pam had not waited for Sookie to make the drive over to the bar and had instead went to fetch her herself.

"Where am I?" he looked around, greatly jarred by the intense dreams. He couldn't explain it but with each vision he had had so far, his body felt like it was being pulled apart. The pain was subsiding somewhat as he awakened but he doubted that this was anything to take lightly. She helped him sit up as Pam had brought out a leather futon she had opened. With the two girls help, he was able to get up and was seated onto it. He looked all around as he came to his senses. "These dreams are getting worse. Harder to get out of. I know you don't know everything about your powers but you broke me free of a witches' spell before. Could you maybe try to use your light on me and maybe it will end this, whatever it is. We don't know for certain it is even witches but what or who else could it be?"

The door to the bar slammed open wide as a tall figure swept lazily into the room, looking rather cocky and smug. "It is not witches but merely myself. I am Darron, and I was a cousin of Marnie Stonebrook and after I heard about her demise and all that she tried to do….well, I couldn't just let that stand. But unlike here, I didn't have to rely on a spirit to boost my magic. I've already got more than enough of my own to see to it that you're put down one way or another." he ran a hand through his shoulder length dirty blonde hair and glared at the three with cold green eyes. "But I can not have the two of you interfering, now can I." the wind rushed into the room as chains were rocketed in from a hidden spot outside. Without a word, he used his magic to bind Sookie in the chains while a silver net was tossed onto Pam.

"NO!" Sookie called on her fairy powers and broke free of the chains, though the warlock seemed unimpressed not surprised. Muttering some kind of incantation, he sent a dark smoke out and into her. Gasping for air, she choked on the smoke before recovering a few moments later. "I heard you had some special powers and from my research, it would make you a fairy. I can't take your powers but I can put them out of action for some time which is what I just done. No fancy lights, no mind reading." he sneered as he snapped his fingers and she was bound by chains once more.

His body recovered enough to move again, Eric was on his feet and was making a beeline for the warlock. His hands reached around the neck of the man and he was about to tear his head off. "I would love nothing more than to have a dead set of Stonebrooks, I really would." he growled in the face of the calm Warlock. Vanishing from his grip, he reappeared behind him, throwing Sookie on the futon and stepping on the incapacitated and burning Pam with a booted foot.

"I want them to see you suffer before they go the way of my sister. She would be so proud of her little cousin. To think my parents never thought I could even conjure a bird. Too bad I never mastered necromancy, I hear my dear Marnie had a good time playing with you. "

The fight was weakened in him thanks to the dark magic but he was certainly no quitter. Taking hold of the anger he felt, he grabbed the warlock by the throat and threw him across the room, hitting the bottles lined up behind the bar counter. Amused, the man merely got back to his feet and brushed off shards of glass that were embedded in him and scattered over his plain navy shirt and jeans. "I do like a challenge. You ready for the next round?" he muttered some words again as a light enveloped the room.

**Chapter 3**

Everything had changed around him as he tried recovering from the thrashing that he had taken by the intruder. Though unable to use necromancy, he was definitely as devious and as dangerous as his dead cousin had been. Looking around at the scene, Eric recognized this place well. He stood outside the castle that had been so easily broken into by the wolves and he stepped into the room where he had found his family all slaughtered mercilessly. And here he stood again, his family dead at his feet, blood pouring from them all and even though the centuries had hardened him somewhat, Sookie and his new family had softened it greatly and he looked away from the tiny body of his infant sister. Two sisters he had now lost, he was reminded as he looked around the ghostly, gloomy room.

"Enjoying your trip home yet?" Darron stepped from out of the shadows and walked around the bodies, shaking his head and making feigned sounds of sorrow. "What a pity. And of course you would know the responsible party, would you not?"

The doors to the castle opened with a thundering noise as a hooded figure stepped into the room, flanked by a pair of wolves. Removing the hood, Russell Edgington was once more in the face of the Viking, taunting him with that smile of his. "Always too sentimental and weak. Unable to let go of the past. The past will destroy you, you know." and with a gesture of his hands, the wolves began to approach, though both appeared rather hesitant at first until Darron muttered some words.

"And no, this is not another dream, I can assure you that and the wolves are quite real. Some of this may be mere conjured images but I think its safe to say that images cam be powerful things, aren't they? I was getting bored of plain old mind games. So enjoy!" he vanished as the image of Russell remained. He was then joined by the ghostly images of Godric, Marnie and Nora herself.

"You are a failure. You're weak and you'll lose it all. She can never love you, she thinks you're a monster. Sookie could do so much better. I should have eaten here when I had the chance." Nora said her voice cold and her look towards him even more so. "I would be alive still if not for your feelings for that fairy. You abandoned me for her."

The cruel words stung as he tried to protest. Godric put a hand on Nora's shoulder. "I no longer consider you a part of the family. You are a mistake. I was very wrong. You're a disgrace to our kind." he looked at Nora with love and admiration, stroking her dark hair. "And you failed to protect her as well."

"I would have done anything to have saved you." Eric looked at Nora, trying to be strong, knowing this was a trick on his mind, though he could feel the emotional effects continuing to try to eat away at him. "I regret what happened to both of you and if I could change things, I would gladly have both of you back with me."

Marnie sniggered as she took her turn to play on his psyche. "You are a fool. The girl is a waste of your time and you have turned weak. And I think there is another who would agree with us." she stepped aside as a pair of people appeared.

"You were a proud warrior and now….look at you. Once a prince and destined to be king, I now see that that would have been a grave mistake. You get all those o mean anything to you killed. I wash my hands of you now and for eternity." Eric's father spoke to him in a voice that was icy and unfeeling. His mother looked at him just as harshly as he began to fall to his knees.

"Weak. And instead of being around to save us, you instead wanted only to pleasure yourself with that wench. You got us killed and for that you are more dead to us than you already are-" she was interrupted by the vampire making a flying leap towards them, landing on the warlock hidden behind the images who vanished. The two wolves got in between of him and the warlock, both looking scared for a moment but in his blind rage and anguish over what had happened this night, he found some old rope and made short work of it, binding it to a pole. The second wolf seemed to be trying hard to fight whatever was forcing it to go up against him

"What kind of wolves are these?" he asked as he took a sword off of the wall. "Spellbound no doubt to do your dirty work." he sneered at the warlock.

"More special than you know." replied the warlock, seated in the throne that was once meant to belong to Eric. "This is the beginning of the end you know. For you and everything you cared about."

He felt like he was being pushed to the brink, as he saw the other wolf escape from the bindings and look at the other one, they were struggling with some inner turmoil. What it was, he didn't care. He could see the markings on them that edging ton's wolves had once had and that was enough for him. Grabbing the one closest to him, he latched down on its neck and began to suck. But as he drained the wolf, the body began to scream. His eyes opened wide as the wolf was changed back into…..

"Pam?" he stopped immediately as he inspected the wound on her neck. She was alive still but very weak.

"I tried fighting his magic, he found away around the necromancy." she whispered. "Making us something different, he could then control me."

The second wolf was at the side of the warlock who clapped sarcastically. "So you know my secret. Big deal. This is far from being over and I suppose its not any surprise any longer as to the identity of this wolf." he petted it on the head and smirked. All the images that he had seen in his dreams and in this strange reality conjured up, appeared around him, encircling him. He saw them in front of them and could hear the voices in his head. Taunting him, demeaning him. Time and time again, he saw the image of Nora dying in his arms all the painful images of his long past were there, suffocating him. The insanity he had long wanted to put there was very much present, much to the delight of the warlock.

"Enough of the dreams and enough of you." Eric snapped at the warlock and with his usual swiftness, he reached the warlock. He tried to get a tight grip around his throat but something was keeping him from making the kill.

"I did it. What no one else has been able to do. You have been broken." Darron said with a grin. He nodded at the wolf. "You can have him."

**Chapter 4**

He turned in time to see her leaping at him, claws and fangs bared. Taking some good swipes at him, she drew blood as he felt his mind turn fuzzy, not being able to remember what he had learned. There was no mercy as he took the wolf and kicked it hard in the chest, sending her into the large wooden table where he had eaten so many meals with his family so long ago. It felt like something had possessed him, something so devious that he was unnerved. That in itself was a rarity and he didn't like feeling this way. But the wolf backed off a little before launching at him again. But he was strong and he was soon wearing it out, he could tell. His mind was a flurry of violence and wanting nothing more than blood. He clamped down on the rear leg of the wolf as it tried to escape his grasp and as it howled, the howl changed into that of a woman screaming and crying.

"I wanted to see you suffer and now I think its is the icing on the cake. Your first progeny and your little girlfriend ripe for the pickings and you don't even care." Darron said as he crouched beside Eric who was holding a barely breathing Sookie in his arms, staring at her blankly. "Using all the pain from your past against you….if only Marnie had thought of it first." he laughed as the setting changed back into the bar and he proceeded to stroll out of the building. He was getting into his car when something ran him through the chest. Looking down in alarm, he saw a bloody fist with the tattered remains of his heart in it. Craning his neck around, he was met with the steely blue eyes of the Viking who smirked wickedly.

"I admit you had me for awhile but in the end, it would seem that you much like your cousin, are a failure." and with another swift move, the head of the warlock was ripped off and fell to the ground with a dull thud. Racing back into the bar, he checked on Pam, who was healing rapidly and was even sitting beside Sookie, trying to help give her his own blood.

"Are you ok?" he asked Pam as he gestured for her to stop. He would take things from here.

"That twit…turning me into some mongrel with bad hair….well, fur, but then seeing what he was doing to you, I tried to fight it , I really did." Pam had the beginnings of bloody tears in the corners of her eyes.

He had put his bleeding wrist to Sookie's mouth as Pam had started talking to him. "don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're okay. Mind you I think you're a much cuter vampire than a wolf."

She laughed as she laid her head on his shoulder and took his arm gently. "I think maybe you could do worse than her. But if she hurts you-" she stopped a she looked at her, cutting her threat off. "I just want you to have something good in your life. I mean besides myself."

"I have a family now with you, Tara and Willa. I have not had a family in a very long time and I certainly will not want to do anything to drive anyone away, least of all her." he was stroking Sookie's hair and felt her beginning to stir. "All I want for any of you is for only the best. After all I have gone through, the pain and suffering and the fact that I just had it brought back all in one wicked bit of magic…..maybe that guy really did break me a little bit. I feel different."

Sookie opened her eyes just then and she couldn't help herself from wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling herself up into his lap. "You are different. Different from the first time I met you, different from the time you let Russell feed off of me. I know you so much better now. The things you just saw and went through only made you stronger. You are anything but broken."

He helped her to her feet as Pam joined them. He still looked greatly troubled. "He planned on breaking me to the point where I would kill the two more important women in my life and I came close to doing just that. I could feel myself losing control." he pulled away from Sookie's touch and made a beeline to his office, the door closing silently behind him with a feeble click.

Pam and Sookie looked at each other a moment. "You go. I think you're the one he needs more than me." Sookie knew how hard this must have been for Pam to say and respectfully nodded in response. Still a little woozy and just emotionally spent from the ordeal, she entered the office and found him gazing around, not really looking at anything in particular. Or so it seemed. She approached with caution as she saw he was holding a frame with a photo of himself and Pam in one hand while in another hand a sketch of Godric and of Sookie rested behind the glass. "I had this commissioned some time ago as I never thought I would lose Godric and I never had gotten a photo of you." he said to her as she came behind the desk.

"The sketches…..they're uncanny." Sookie said as she looked at the one of her, then to the one of Godric. "Right down to his tattoos, its amazing. And I think I like myself better in this sketch than in any photo I have ever had taken of me." Sookie said, looking up at him. She could see the tension radiating from him, felt the anguish and anger he was feeling for what happened and what nearly happened. "You are not weak. You were able to stop from killing Pam or me and isn't that what matters?"

He looked at her as he put the picture frames gently back onto a shelf. Sitting down in his chair, he ran a hand through his blonde hair. "To have ones worst nightmares and fears brought back tenfold and then to have what happened with you and Pam happen….I really truly hate witches. I believed Marnie was evil enough but she really had nothing on her dear cousin." he ignored the bleeds that had begun. "Dawn is coming…"

"And you need some rest. Desperately." Sookie helped him up and led him down to the basement where so much horror and blood had been spilled. Much cleaner now, it was still eerie. There were three caskets placed in this room but it was when he hit a hidden switch was his secret resting place revealed. "I never knew you had a hidden room."

He rolled his eyes. "Pam insisted that I have a space of my own for my own good. She is not one to pick a fight with and it was a rare time where I lost. But to be honest, its not terrible. I rarely use it and prefer to spend my resting time at my house." he opened the sleek black casket and Sookie peered inside. It looked plush and comfortable. He climbed in with Sookie's aid. He appeared shaky and she was concerned. "There is room for two." he said with a rueful smile.

"At least that part of you is still in tact." Sookie said with a smile, watching him as he lay down. To his surprise, she climbed up and into the casket and positioned herself beside her. "I should have told Pam it would be a little while." taking her sleeve of her shirt, she gently cleaned up the blood coming from his ears. "But I think its safe to say she would probably put two and two together. "

"Are you sure you want to stay here? I don't want you to be uncomfortable. Surely you are used to better accommodations than this."

"I just want to be sure you get the rest you need." she said as she put her head against his chest. "Mind you, you'll excuse me if I have to get up in the middle of the night. Having to pee and what not."

He managed a laugh. "I think I am already starting to feel much better already."

"Good. Sweet dreams." she replied as she closed her eyes, she too exhausted by the strange and terrifying ordeal.

"I'm already having some with my inspiration beside me." he replied as his eyes closed. "Sweet dreams to you as well Sookie."

The End


End file.
